I was actually expecting ridership in the area to be much higher considering the intense marketing and growth of the system in recent years. Salt Lake City is comparable in size and population to Calgary, where ridership is nearly 10 times what ridership in Salt Lake is. Hopefully, people there will begin to recognize the true benefits of the light rail system.

I was actually expecting ridership in the area to be much higher considering the intense marketing and growth of the system in recent years. Salt Lake City is comparable in size and population to Calgary, where ridership is nearly 10 times what ridership in Salt Lake is. Hopefully, people there will begin to recognize the true benefits of the light rail system.

Is the system mostly grade-separated?

It's all relative. Calgary got started early with their light rail and the size of your dense city core is much larger than ours.

When everything is said and done come 2013 our light rail system will be almost the same size as Denver's (about 41.3 miles) before the implementation of their FasTracks expansions.

We will probably end up having the same ridership they did for a city that is much smaller (around 65,000 every weekday).

One thing to remember also is that the majority of the Trax system is not grade separated. Downtown, it runs in the middle of the street.

SLC is gaining ridership and as more projects come online, ridership will increase. The Salt Lake Valley is nearly built out. Soon, we will only have 1 way to go...up. This will further increase the ridership of the system.

One thing to remember also is that the majority of the Trax system is not grade separated. Downtown, it runs in the middle of the street.

SLC is gaining ridership and as more projects come online, ridership will increase. The Salt Lake Valley is nearly built out. Soon, we will only have 1 way to go...up. This will further increase the ridership of the system.

It's standard light rail, I'm not sure what youngregina was asking. We didn't spend money to make it into a subway or a wannabe heavy rail line like Seattle did, but it doesn't actually share lanes with cars (standard light rail). It's not a streetcar system.

The Fourth Quarter transit ridership numbers are out from APTA and TRAX has edged up to an average of 59,100 weekday riders (up from 55,500 riders last quarter). Most other agencies seemed to stay flat or drop a bit, with the exception of Dallas, which jumped significantly (Dallas opened a new light rail line which opened in entirety in December 2010).

"The last big push will be this spring and summer," said Jim Webb, project manager for the Utah Transit Authority, noting the project is 80 percent complete. "We will probably be substantially complete in the fall of this year."

That will be followed by an estimated six months of system testing with trains on the track. The line is expected to open for passengers sometime in early 2013 —which is actually years ahead of the original projected completion date of 2015...

...Officials also see it as the start of a bright future, believing that the new line can help the surrounding North Temple corridor to become perhaps a national model for redevelopment...

...In March, the city and UTA held a conference to tell area businesses and residents how they hope the new line will turn the North Temple area into a forerunner of what they hope to see throughout the Wasatch Front during the next 30 years. They are eyeing transit projects to handle an expected 67 percent growth in population.

They hope a third of the regional population will cluster in new high-density town centers built around transit stations, including along North Temple. Many buildings would have businesses on the first floor, offices on the second and residences above that. They city has changed zoning ordinances to allow that...

Street Car spurring hundreds of millions in development in booming Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City Updates - Sugar House District

Sugar House Park, surrounded by Salt Lake City's spectacular setting

$400M-plus in private investment, hundreds of housing units coming to Sugar HousePassengers unload from a bus on 2100 South near 1100 East in Salt Lake City, Monday, May 14, 2012. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)

SALT LAKE CITY — The Sugar House business district is on the cusp of major changes, thanks to big
development projects either under way or coming soon.

The private investment projected for the next five years is big, too: $400 million.

"There's an enormous amount of development that's about to occur in the heart of the Sugar House business district,"
said D.J. Baxter, executive director of Salt Lake City's redevelopment agency.

For years, a symbol of Sugar House development was an empty lot in the middle of the business district, nicknamed by
some as "the Sugar Hole." It was a proposed project stalled by a variety of factors, including the economic downturn.

By Ravell Call, Deseret News

Now, that's about to change. Baxter said nine major projects are in the works in the area.

A bus and other traffic move through the intersection of 2100 South and 1100 East in Salt Lake City, Monday, May 14, 2012. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)

They will bring about 1,000 new residential units, and nearly 2 million square feet of new residential, retail and office
space.

"Building up is essentially the next frontier for us," said Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen.

Simonsen, himself an architect, said the new 2-mile Sugar House streetcar line, which had a groundbreaking last week,
is driving the growth, in part.

Sugar House Street Car Line, now under construction

So are a variety of urban amenities from bike trails to restaurants to entertainment. Plus, a major factor is a strong
demand for housing, particularly apartments.

"What we're hearing from the development community is there's a huge demand for housing. But we can't finance condos
and homeowners can't buy condos because of the credit market," Simonsen said. "Right now, there's huge pent up
demand for other housing — apartments — and that's what's relatively easy to finance today."

Development is slated for each of the seven stops along the new streetcar line.

"I think these projects are all very solid and I seem them each moving forward pretty quickly," Baxter said.

The Sugar House streetcar line is expected to be finished by late 2013.

Following, two of the many projects now readying construction in Sugar House

I told you I will do some photo's from time to time and here is the first of them.

Fairborne StationHere is the current state of the Hotel being built in West Valley. They are working on the 7th floor. I wanted to get
some shots of it from 35th but we were getting on TRAX and didn't have time for me to take a walk.

The TOD next to the 45th TRAX station on Main. I love the Birkhill apartments that are going in but not fond of the
Lions Gate apartments. I don't see them engaging the street as much and my wife looked at them and asked, "I hope
that color isn't the fished look". She was referring to the yellow color that they were painting the stucco.

Birkhill @ Fireclay

Pic By StevenF.

Ultimately I would love to see something taller than 5 floors go into the area around the 45th TRAX station, but
overall happy to see this kind of density going in next to a TRAX station finally. It would also be nice to see a small
grocery store go into the bottom of a future building in the development. Help spur more urban living in that area.

Interesting thing is I was standing in the skybridge at CCC and looking down Main I could see these buildings. will
be interesting looking down main in the future and seeing the South end of Main anchored with midrise buildings.

Salt Lake City was top of the list for transit access of the metropolitan workforce in 90 minutes or less. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

By Erin Hong, Deseret News

Only 27 percent of the metropolitan workforce is able to reach their jobs in 90 minutes or less by transit. But for Salt Lake City, 64 percent of the metro area is available to workers, according to a report by Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

Salt Lake City's public transit access to employees outshines places like New York, which ranked number 17 on the list, and Washington D.C., which ranked 23 at 33.8 percent, according to the study.

Employers' access in the West top those in the South at reaching employees through transit, said Adie Tomer, Brookings' senior research associate and author of the report. "Also, in many metropolitan areas, the access to labor in cities is much greater than the access to labor in suburbs, because of the older design of transit systems and more modern employer sprawl to the suburbs."

The Utah city of Provo neared the top of the list, ranking number seven with 47 percent access rate, and Ogden followed close behind at 44 percent.

"While metropolitan unemployment rates remain stubbornly high, vacancies do exist across most industries," Tomer said. "Expanding access to larger pools of qualified labor will help fill those positions and improve economic performance. This research can help metropolitan areas more efficiently develop their transit networks and address that access gap."